Daily Search Forum Recap: December 16, 2019

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google 2019 Holiday Decorations Are Live For Christmas, Chanukah & Kwanzaa
  Google has put up its decorations for the holidays, at least in the desktop and mobile search results. If you search for [christmas],[chanukah], and [kwanzaa] you will see animated decorations and themes in the search results interface.
• Google Local Pack Tests Site Cards Element
  I do not know what to call it but it seems Google is testing showing a card or box within the local pack snippets of a specific listing that links you to the business's web site. Jason Parks shared a screen shot of this with me on Twitter, here, look for yourself.
• Google: It's Not Just About Improving Your Content But Rather Your Whole Web Site
  Google's John Mueller dug into a question about a site that spent time improving its "mediocre quality" content but still did not see significant ranking improvements. John said that is not just about improving the content, but rather also working on fixing the overall quality of the web site and maybe even about differentiating your site from your competitors.
• Google: We Can Debug Our Search Ranking Algorithm At Many Levels
  Google's John Mueller said in a webmaster hangout that Googlers, at many levels, not just the elite set at the top, can debug the search algorithm. He said "Also the meta question here does anyone really know how the algorithm works. And that is something where we do have a lot of people in search quality that are able to debug pretty much any query."
• Google's New GoogleBot User Agent Names Rolling Out
  As you know, Google told us the user agent names are changing in December, this month, with the new evergreen GoogleBot. Martin Splitt from Google said you may see this new user agent in your log files now, because Google is rolling it out as an experiment now before it is fully rolled out at some point this month.
• Google Discover Performance Report Data Bug; December 8-13
  Google has documented a bug with Google Search Console reporting, specifically the performance report when filtered to Discover data. Google said you may see a dip in your Google Discover reported traffic because a reporting bug, but in reality, there was no real dip in that traffic.
• Google's John Mueller Hiding Again But From What?
  Here is another photo of John Mueller of Google hiding again. First, obviously he isn't great at hiding. Second, why is he hiding again. :-) This photo was taken by Martin Splitt, his co-worker. He

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

• Google ecommerce SEO vs. Google blogging, WebmasterWorld
• After BERT, who knows when uniCORN will go live?, John Mueller on Twitter
• No "SEO-bonus" for that, but there are other reasons, such as accessibility, which can be important for your users., John Mueller on Twitter
• Nothing to worry about :). You don't need to disavow nofollow links., John Mueller on Twitter

Search Engine Land Stories:

• Planning and creating the perfect landing page

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

• Unified App + Web Properties from Google Analytics, Bounteous
• Custom Templates In Google Tag Manager: How To Build The Perfect Ecommerce Data Layer, Wpromote Blog
• How to Track Light/Dark Mode in Google Analytics through Google Tag Manager, Jonathan Dingman
• How to use Google Data Studio: A guide for SMEs, The UK Domain
• What are Filters in Google Analytics?, The Coloring In Department

Industry & Business

• Google's AI Chief Wants to Do More With Less (Data), Wired

Links & Promotion Building

• Creating outstanding website content in 3 steps, Google Blog
• How to Build a Link Analysis Dashboard with the Google Query Function in Google Sheets [Free Template], Search Engine Journal

Local & Maps

• Google Maps 101: how imagery powers our map, Google Blog
• Bing Maps Make the Revived Flight Simulator Eerily Realistic, Wired
• Google Maps's new UI has no side menu, but gets a 5-tab bottom bar with quick access to your saved places, Android Police
• Helping provide information during the bushfire crisis, Official Google Australia Blog
• My doctor’s advice turned me into a Local Guide, Google Blog

Mobile & Voice

• The Google Assistant and Context-Based Natural Language Processing, Go Fish Digital

SEO

• Why Google’s algorithm is slowly making SEO agencies obsolete, The Drum

PPC

• 5 Benefits of Using PPC and SEO Together, Know Agency

Search Features

• Capturing the Change in Topical Interests of Personas Over Time, Jim Jansen